killing two people. nothing suggested linked terrorism to that crash in which the ensuing flames rained down on rush hour traffic. the crash occurred less than a mile from britain's parliament. very, very scary situation. we are moments away from the fed's latest read on the economy. here is how the markets are doing. right now the dow lost its strength, down 23 point on the trading session. s&p is dead in the water all hour and nasdaq is actually up about 10 points on the trading session, ty? >> sue w, watch this story in algeria. that does it for "power lunch." thanks for joining us today. >> and "street signs" begins now with breaking news on the fed and economy. >> that's right, sue and tyler. we have boeing in crisis. we have housing on the mend and five-star stock picks. we've also got the very latest on a scary story in algeria

where militants say they have taken 41 people hostage, include something americans, at a bp oil field. well get to that in a moment but let us get to breaking news for the fed and how they are performing and get to steve liesman. steve? >> the federal reserve district says economic growth is modest to moderate in all 12 districts. that's how we normally lead but that's not the most important. what is important is the talk about how fiscal uncertainties are already hurting the economy. you think the debt ceiling is an issue for down the road? base book suggests an issue for right now. let me get to other issues first and i will get back to that. rebounding from hurricane sandy. holiday sales modestly higher but appear to be below expectations. manufacturing is mixed with the outlook generally optimistic. real estate is up in all districts and real estate growth was moderate to strong in all districts. now we get to the fiscal cliff issues.

hiring times are cautious especially for companies doing business in europe and defense. hiring plans specifically delays in six district due to fiscal uncertainties. let me show you individual comments from the districts when it comes to the fiscal uncertainties. real estate context with down side risk because of potential fiscal contraction. weaker holiday sales in new york to on-line shopping, mild weather and fiscal cliff concerns. in philadelphia, staffing agencies, watching reaction, quoting with serial fiscal cliff decisiones. cleveland, auto workers worried about the impact on sales. even in in dallas, where farmers are usually worried with rain. no, this time, worried about fiscal uncertainty. philly manufacturing was up in this survey, according to the base book. mandy? >> understood, thank you very much. breaking it all down for us, steve liesman, a terrorist

attack where american citizens are among the dozens of people at an american gas plant. what more do we know, michelle? >> secretary of defense leon panetta said an overnight attack on the natural gas facility in algeria was a terrorist attack. both he confirming that americans are held by islamic militant though won't say how many. those americans are part after larger group of foreigners with several nationalities. the natural gas production facility is in north africa near the libyan border. it is a joint venture between bp of the uk, stat oil of norway and sonia track, the al geerian state oil company. this is courtesy of google maps. in statement, bp says the attack was midnight eastern time and that quote contact with the site is extremely difficult. but we understand that armed individuals are still occupying

the operations site. according to reports from journalists in wenern who have n in contact with the kidnappers say this is because of insurgence in neighboring mali. france, by the way, already on heightened security alert as a result of situation in mali, which by the way, also borders on algeria. back to you. >> michelle, i understand that algeria put it out there that, no negotiation with terrorists. do we know the united states' stance on that? >> normally no negotiating with terrorists. but victoria nuland did not address that specifically and it did not come up today. >> let's bring in senator chris coons. he joins us from cairo egypt. senator, thank you very much for joining us in this tough time. do we know if this is al qaeda?

>> brian, i am just getting news about this myself in the last few hours. hour delegation was traveling to mali and this trip was diverted to egypt because of the degenerating security situation in mali. we believe from reports that i've gotten that this is by al qaeda in retaliation for the french military actions in partnership with the mali military over recent days to try and stabilize the security situation and to fight back against the islamic extremists who have taken control of all of northern mali. >> what do you think the official u.s. stance will be towards this? where do we go from here in terms of trying to resolve it? >> well, first, my prayers and thoughts are with the families of those hostages who we just learned have been taken. typically the united states take a very strong stand on hostage taking. we don negotiate with

terrorists. and i strongly support the administration's position of engaging in the mali military action by the french. the u.n. security council has already authorized multilateral military action in mali to try and secure the country from the islamic extremist threat that caused the military action over the last few days. this will be a very difficult situation but one where i think we need to stand with our allies in ensuring that we take decisive action it free the hostages if possible or to ensure we've got a path forward towards improving security for the region. >> senator, this attack was on a facility co-owned by norwegian company and algerian company. there were americans working at the facility. is it believed, so far, that was an attack directed at americans and america? or an attack directed at simply a foreign-owned gas field regardless of the nationality? because they wanted the attention of having foreign hostages?

>> i don't know the difference at this point. the partial information i've gotten suggests that it was an attempt to attack a western interest and to take hostages from the countries that are supporting the malian military and their efforts to stabilize and secure their country. the united states, britain and canada, have supported the french military action. so far we have provided intelligence and logistic support. there is no direct u.s. military involvement in mali. at this point, though we intend to work with regional allies, the african countries that pledged combat italians to be part of the region african led force -- >> no direct military action in mali by the united states. steve coons, be safe, you and your party. thanks for joining us. the other big story at this hour, big trouble at boeing after another battery issue. two biggest japanese airlines grounded their fleet of 787s.

this is just the latest in a series of setbacks and problems for the dream liner. also a setback for boeing shares which are down again and goldman sachs jumping into the fray today. we moving boeing from its buy list and cutting its target from 90 to 98. phil lebeau was all over this story. you were on the first 787 flight. would you describe this as a real crisis for boeing? >> oh, absolutely. absolutely. there is so much invested in this plane. they want it make sure they get this resolved as quick lays possible. remember, the key here is ramping up production later this year. that's why they are focused on what is happening right now over in japan. they have investigators over there. remember, a and a and jal, japan air, grounded their dream liners today and tomorrow, after the emergency by ana. the japanese airlines, by the way, they have 24 of the 50 dream liners in service. the ntsb has an investigator

there. today, the ntsb issues a cursecy report about what is happening with the emergency landing saying the crew received multiple messages in the cockpit concerning the battery and other systems that were affected, also reported smoke in the cockpit and odor in the cabin. the the limb ylithium ion batteries are made by a japanese company. there was an incident at logan airport. the stock is down 9% since then as they look into what is going on with the lithium ion batte batteries. finally, weighing in, we heard from goldman sachs. now s&p downgrading boeing shares to a hold that the concern here that ultimately you could see passengers declining to take a potential flight because it's being flown by a 787. we haven't heard that happening yet. and the airlines are sticking

with it. with the exception of the airlines grounding it the last couple of days. that's the concern at least from s&p. >> there are nervous flyers out there. they would probably ask that question at check-in. thanks, phil. stick around. we want to know whether or not beauing is handling this crisis effectively and should they just ground the planes? let's bring in judy shij, president and ceo of smith and company. and former airline pilot and airline consultant. judy, let me start with you. do you classify this as crisis or can we put some of this to just teething pains? >> i would classify it as a crisis as indicated earlier, the stock has gone down. the other thing that's a big problem is you have boeing saying that the planes are safe. you have the faa and other agencies saying they are safe. but it doesn't match up. it is mixed messages because the public has seen, heard and read about all these planes and their

problems. so until the investigation is over and the problems is resolves, boeing has a problem. >> do you feel they are not handling the problem the way they should be? are they doing themselves a disservice to say, no, no, they are safe? could they do better? >> i think what will happen is at some point, if are there planes with other problems and other issues, that will not only force boeing but also force the agencies to say that we need to ground these planes until all of these problems and issues can be worked out. >> denny, you are a former pilot. would you fly a 787 today? >> no. >> why not? >> until they get the fire problem worked out, i wouldn't want to be up at 33,000 feet over the polar ice cap four hours from safe landing strip and in this airplane. i think boeing needs to figure out what is going on.

i agree with judy. i think it is a crisis. and i would go ahead and ground the airplane and figure out what is going on and fix it so they don't have anything going on in the future. >> i want to take the other side here a little bit, denny. obviously you know more about it than i do. you look at super jumbo from airbus. there was an issue where they had o t.o. make a landing a couple of months ago. there were structural problems there. teething pains in all new planes. is this a battery issue that ch can be replaced rather than a structural issue with the fuselage of the plane? >> the 380 was grounded for almost a month because of those problems. and the thing that you have to realize here, is that we are talking about fire. that's probably the worst thing that can happen to an airplane in flight with the exception of maybe a structural failure of some major part falls off. you've got a fire in the

airplane and that's a problem. until they decide what is going on and how to fix it, it still continues to be a problem. there has been, there was a fire on a 747 in saudi arabia from a lithium battery that caused it to crash. they were hauling lithium battery niece saudi arabia. there is speculation they'll stop hauling lithium batteries or not let people go on planes with lap tops because of the lithium batteries. it is a problem. >> our guests are saying, "they" within as if folks are boeing are saying, should we let them fly or should we not. first of all, there are investigations going o on with the faa and ntsb. they have started looking at data because this plane is connected to boeing and airlines, constantly feeding back data. whether or not it is data they want to see, no one knows. but it is constantly giving back data. if investigators from ntsb look at boston fire or what is

happening in japan and said, whoa, there is a serious problem here, you don't think they would ground the planes immediately? i think one of the things that people need to keep in mind -- >> what the data is -- >> you're absolutely right -- >> if it is so good then how come it happened. >> judy. >> i was going to say, this is what we know from a reputation point of view. whether it's the faa, or boeing. is that the public really appreciates when government agencies, particularly when corporations, put their safety first. and public responded well when corporations have done that. so if there is an issue that's not resolved, it is one of the things the company ought to consider. >> you think boeing should cut it down for now? boeing should do it. customers, don't fly right now? >> they should consider it. yes, there is a whole lost

financial issues they have to consider. but if there are problems with the plane and there's investigations going on, it certainly is something they should be talking about now. >> maybe phil another time we can get into the financials of what it would cost to ground the plane. we have to wrap it up there. in the long run, hopefully it leads it a safer plane. >> on deck, much more on the developing story in algeria. cia calling it a terrorist attack. well give give you latest as we learn it, coming up. >> jamie dimon says housing is back. but have you tried to refie yet? next, why the process is beyond frustrating. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some day, your life will flash before your eyes. ♪ make it worth watching. ♪

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let's take a price of oil. we are not seeing a huge move. probably better to look at crude there. wti up about .8 of 1%. there was an attack on a gas facility in algeria. there are reports of terrorist storming the facility and taking hostages, including americans. let's meet senior analyst for barclays. helima, what is your view on this. >> the facilitators are located in the desert. it is not easy to reach them.

if this happens here, where else can it happen? there is an influx of weapons because of the libyan conflict. they are a very dangerous group to have to contend with. >> are there any other oil producing countries nearby that need to be on the lookout and clampdown. >> i would watch for nigeria. boca haron is another big group. they have been conducting a very vicious bombing campaign north of the country. they haven't done any attacks in the south but there is a a concern you could see an attack on a southern energy facility in n nigeria and nie yeara is africa's largest oil producer. >> what impact do you expect to see on the oil market in that situation. >> i do think that would lead to an uptick in pricees. nigerian prices has been at risk for several years. we had big attacks on nigerian facilities. i think it would be a very

chilling effect if there was an attack on a nigerian facility. >> now you are seeing french action in mali. seeing attacks in nigeria, right? we knew there was trouble in nigeria around the oil fields, hostage taking, ransom demands, seemed to be small time. now there is stuff going o on in the arab spring, what is the risk to the continent? >> i worry about what has happened in terms of because of libya. we did a good job getting khadafi out of libya. i don't think we would have all this trouble in mali if we did a better job with missile -- all sorts of weapons did not end up in places like mali. we have seen places like sinai and weapons ending up in the area. i think we have to be concerned about not doing enough to secure libyan weapons. u.s. officials say there are

three hostages. but would you in the worst case scenario see, helima, foreign commodity companies and commodity and gas companies pull out of areas like this? >> absolutely. one of the things i watch nigeria for years and it was a red line for foreign companies in terms of attacks on their employees. they do not like to have their employees put at risk. so if we see a sustained attack on the energy infrastructure in these companies, you will see companies being cautious and closing down production to keep companies safe. >> helima, thank you for following the situation for us. >> thank you. >> where there a corn-ucopia of housing, most upbeat, including a confidence in a seven-year high and home building lanar plans to build apartments. let's bring in michelle meyer and diane ulich.

michelle, how are thused are you were or are you not, about the housing data we have seen lately? >> i am enthused. i believe the recovery in the housing mark set ongoing. we have signes it is accelerating into 2013. we know that 2012 was in many ways a turning point for the housing market. we saw a real turn in housing construction. construction up almost 25% from the peak. home prices on track, we have 5, 6% on the year. 2012 started the recovery and new we are seeing signs that momentum is going to continue. so i think we should be encouraged. >> how great is an impediment is the fact it is just so hard to get a refi or even a home loan these days. everyone atalked to applied for a refi or home appraised so the system is kind of broken right now. it is so far the other way, appraisers are giving very whacky numbers. myself getting a refi, taking months and months and months to get the rubber stamp.

isn't this the further showing after recovery. >> you bring a good point. if credit was operating normally, we would see much stronger growth given the affordability we are in. i think what's happened is we were able to see that recovery. despite the fact that credit was tight. if we see loosening of the market, which i suspect we will this year, it is by no means returning back to where it was in the early part of the last decade but some easing up of credit. it can help to support the housing recovery and gain even more momentum. >> diana, what is going on with appraisers? it is one probably played out millions of times lately. >> there are strict rules. but when we talk about the turn around in 2012, a lot of that was investor driven. they are big cash, hedge funds, buying up the distress. now you see those real organic

began u lar buyegranular buyers back into the market. we have new servicing rules coming out tomorrow morning. so the mortgage mark set getting tougher. a little tighter. it will stay the same for a while. i don't see it easing up. when i talk to analysts, that's the concern going forward. >> diana, in the hay day, there were appraisers, basically saying, what do you want me to value your house at. now anecdotely, it seems to be the opposite. and personally, the opposite where appraisers were terrified and undervaluing everything. >> new rules went into effect. >> what is the rule? devalue everything by 20%? >> it is a question of banks being very, very careful. but appraisers are loosening up. much better than a year or two ago when i did my refi, let me tell you. it is not just that, we talk about how hard it is to get the

refi fast. mandy's refi. banks cut their staff on this. they get thousands and thousands of refinance applications, up 15% today we saw from mortgage bankers. people trying to get in before rates go up. so it is just sheer volume in getting all of the loans processed because they have to dot every i and cross et. remember, this is not the days of the low doc no doc loans. that doesn't exist. you must fully document everything and folks, that takes time. >> it sure does take time. i want to know, is it still a good investment to own a house? what the case, as we stand at the beginning of 2013, for renting versus buying? >> happy wife, happy life? pretty much, that's it. >> one point on what diana had just said, she is absolutely right. that credit is still arguably tech but we have to be careful in what period we are comparing it to. we are not trying to compare to the low doc period where credit was extraordinarily easy.

if we ged cred it to where it had been the past few years, you can see things move a bit better. affordability is quite positive. you are seeing signs of confidence return to the primary home buyer returning to the market. er with not saying it is a big, you know, surge in home price or surge in home sales, but a marginal improve many and one that helps create momentum. in terms of your other question, is it a good time to buy or rent, i think it is very much your personal preferences. one of the trends we've seen is a shift into renting. i think that's a consequence of this downturn. the housing bubble burst. it left a lot of people that were no longer able to be owners. they moved into the rental market. as household information picks up, which is happening and will continue to happen, it will not only support the ownership market. it will also support the rental market. >> okay. lots more to rent. a billion dollars worth of

rental apartments, aren't there? we will leave it there. michelle, diana, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> coming up, planes, pains and automobiles. we will bring you three five-star stock bets. that's like 15 stars, folks. >> wow, also the average person should only eat 2,000 calories a day. but apparently some of the biggest chains missed the memo. like this bad boy. eye hop's country fried steak and eggs combo. whopping 1,760 calories. there's more where that came from, coming up. [ male announcer ] where do you turn for legal matters?

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welcome back. let's get straight to julia boorstin. julia? >> down 4.5% earlier today despite the fact that daily deals service introduced a new tool for small businesses to measure their return on investment with groupon, a free merchant impact report. now the stock doubled since november. looks like we are seeing profit taking. now brian, over to you. >> thank you very much. gun stocks are surging higher after the president proposed a new assault weapons ban and the

mandatory background checks for gun buyers. let us get to eamon jafers for more on the president's plan and eamon, it appears that, you know, all of these law abiding citizens rushing out to buy guns. >> yeah. brian. one of the interesting counter intuitive impacts might be for the stores that sell guns that do background checks as they close the gun show loopholes. some of those retailers might see a benefit as more of the gun buying public goes to them. it was a solemn ceremony here at the wlous. president and vice president were surrounded by families and victims of recent gun massacres. president and his aids saying that the gun proposals come in four broad categories. let me give those to you. first one is closing background check loop holes. couple of measures to do that. and also high capacity magazines. a couple of proposals centered around the idea of making schools safer including more cops on the street and police officers to the school systems

themselves and also increasing access to meant ol health services. now the president said, he realizes this won't be an easy sell on capitol hill. >> this will be difficult. there will be pundits and politicians and lobbyists, warning of an all-out assault on liberty. not because that's true, but because think want to jet up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves. >> and guys, kind of a tepid response. john boehner put out a statement saying the speaker will review the measures and if the senate passes a bill, we will review that as well. no guarantees to take up the measure. this faces stiff opposition. >> eamon javers, thanks you very

much. our first look at blackberry 10. >> have you used itunes lately? if you have, you noticed it totally changed. a lot of us old folks are very confused by it. we have an idea that could fix it, sunny. what if they bought spotify? we will debate it, coming up.

it is hump day, everybody. hallelujah and welcome to street talk. today we will call it street meat because we have a big food focus. first, kellogg. >> underperformed and $55 target on stocks. 2 bucks a down side. valuation call, really. you would think the earnings is also i think mandy a serier cerl war could be coming. they think general mills will respond aggressively. price cuts, discounts, whatever.

kelloggs will be forced to respond. >> and who goes from that? we do. >> uh-oh, chipotle, below wall street looks. operating narrowed. they are making less profit on what they sell. sort of defending the stock, saying sales weren't terrible but food costs and inability to raise prices, margin compression, big issue. >> if you today choose, burgers or tacos, which is your favorite? >> tacos. i'm on the quest for the best. >> i go for theburger. why not wendy's? >> wendy's going the other way. eps better than expected. sales were light. revenues up 2.4% year over year. guiding this year slightly above expectations. here is the thing. operating margins manage to rise. right?

so chipotle, rising. ceo of wendy's, it's not wendy. ceo is on the closing bell. that guy, emil brolik. >> moving away from the food theme, throw it in. >> not a huge bump up. but this has been hotly contested stock. we see revenue above where wall street is 4r5is for it. a boost there as well. watch inventory growth though. they see that going up. you can see vera bradley stock down 30%. that's why i threw it in. good news on a bad news name. >> we will get to food later on. big-calorie food. >> our extreme food wall. >> extreme food. extreme eating. >> what is the worst -- >> that would be a dumb tease if i told anybody who is the worst offender. they have to watch to find out. >> so you are not on the herb greenburg school of tv?

our next guest says it is not time yet to count on you jumbo jets. just don't bank on boeing. we call this the planes, pains and automobiles trade. co-manager of five star james balanced golden rain dough beau fund. first off, barry, do you own boeing currently in your fund? >> no, we do not pch. >> okay, you would not be a buyer here, even though it is a couple bucks off the recent high? >> it doesn't fit the criteria we are looking for, so it hasn't risen into the perspective we want. er with looking for bargains and good earnings and nice steady uptrend and at this moment, it hasn't hit the screens that we look for as far as something we would be looking to buy. >> and you come along today with three picks that do fall into your criteria. let's run through them. we have lockheed martin. >> yeah. a little bit after contrary opinion, meeting those basic

criteria i just talked about. it is trading cheap. about ten, 11 times earnings. earnings have been going up well. the stock hasn't done a whole lot lately because everyone is concerned about the fiscal cliff, debt cliff, sequester cliff and you know, if you want the cliff notes, then you want to go the opposite of that and they are diversified and they should do fine. >> okay, mylan is another one you have. >> yes. this is a good use of a company's money and they have been buying back aggressively. cheap with good earnings. and they had a couple of purchases. just about doubled in size and they have done a very good job management wise. and now they've got good diversification. good product line and you know, they expanded across the globe and their sales? the u.s. are strong. we like mylan as well. >> the final pick, and a car

company. i believe as a car guy and owe fis nand an officionado, has th best looking car right now, and that is ford. >> it is interesting what ford has been able to do. and again, a cheap company. revenues are in a good upturn right now and we see that cars are cheap on an affordability base compared to the average earning that folks have. it talks about 28 weeks from 26 to buy a car. average is over 11 years. americans know one thing to spend money and they like spending it on cars. >> yeah. >> we are seeing new highs in terms of sales. all of this is good for ford and other car manufacturers. we like ford. >> i told mandy, get rid of her 1993 ford ltd, but she won't listen to me yet. >> my father had an ltd and unk

uncle worked for ford his entire life. something you didn't know. >> on the news wire, hewlett-packard with autonomy for businesses and it says so far it is not in selling mode. hp shares up 4%. remember, that autonomy purchase, $10 billion. absolutely terrible. they wrote off most of it. it is why they are in trouble. people are sniffing around. autonomy, that's been a big problem. eds, according to dow jones be maybe interest in those names and, if you remember one of my predecks this year, it is that hp will be bought by oracle after spinning off and getting rid of other noncore divisions. >> and it is only the second week of the year -- >> happy new year everybody. let's end the year now. there we go. >> is he here? >> let's get straight out to you. what more are we hearing about this?

>> you know, we are all just hearing it at the same time. interesting that hp seems to have trouble getting its arms around exactly what autonomy is worth to begin with. and eds, i point out, is valuable to hp, during the down time period around 2007, 2008, a counter cyclical play within the portfolio. and of course, structurally at hp, all sort of questions about what they might do going forward. wouldn't it be interesting if hp combined with dell? all interesting ideas but meg whitman laid out a plan to wall street that is not happy to how hp performed over the last several quarters. she said she is interested in executing on that plan. to sell anything at this stage would raise questions all over again about exactly what the strategy is. >> first of all, big news about dell earlier on this week. now hp. what is going on in this pc business?

>> not just the pc business, mandy, as you know. all kinds of tech rumors flying around p.m. people are wondering what facebook would announce p.m. speculations about mobile. now all these questiones about apple supply chain. are they cutting orders? but the alleged level they are cutting from is ridiculously high around 65 million a unit for iphone level and that wouldn't even make sense for the next quarter. an interesting season and month where people are throwing a lot of stuff against the wall to see what sticks. >> mandy is asking what is going on in the pc world, john. i don't know but i know what is not going on, selling the pcs. >> sales. >> sales. >> as we approach intel earnings tomorrow, what had been happening is that in developed markeds like western europe, consumers slowed down. but intel is able to keep the enterprise refresh growing businesses. we have pcs and eastern europe and other developing markets as middle class group. people move up into pcs.

seems like that whole process, with the slow down in developed markets slowed down. we will see the extent of that just tomorrow. >> indeed. thanks for jumping in. big news there. >> sure. >> speaking of big, is it possible to be too fat to be a leader after company? is it possible to be big boned like me or skinny like her? or just fat? >> pick. >> choose one of us. >> who would you rather? [ male announcer ] here's a word that could give you peace of mind. unbiased. some brokerage firms are. but way too many aren't. why? because selling their funds makes them more money. which makes you wonder -- isn't that a conflict? go to e-trade. we've g0t over 8,000 mutual funds and not one of them has our name on it. e-trade. less for us. more for you. executor of efficiency. you can spot an amateur from a mile away... while going shoeless and metal-free in seconds.

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coming up on "closing bell." drawing provis from u.s. bancorp but is the market taking on too much risk in the housing market now? well ask ceo richard davis about that. and ebay's earnings, we will have the instant analysis when the numbers are outcoming up after the closing bell. are higher food prices taking a bite out of wendy's earnings? we will speak exclusively to the ceo of the fast-food giant. another newsy day, following the hewlett-packard story as well. >> hp certainly developing. that was our question before the break. is it better to have a stick thin ceo, like this one over

here. or one who is, you know, big boned, but otherwise purely fit, like this one over here. there are two new studies out here today with two different opiniones. jane wells here to chew the fat. jane, who's better? me or mandy, pick one. >> well, mandy, obviously. >> take the victory walk here. >> we are not talking about big-boned, but fit. we are talking about big-boned and not fit. does being fat make you a bad ceo or less effective? a report by the wall street journal says executives who had a body mass index under 25 were perceived by peers to be better an tasks and interpersonal skills. those with a bmi o over 25, not so much. are we biassed against obesity even as americans get fatter? >> developers, developers, developers, developers.

>> well, steve ballmer isn't the sveltest guy, but one could argue, he hardly lacks stamina. jeff bezos of amazon is called the best ceo, and has a body fat percentage of, i don't know, 10, 5. and always trim john schchamberf cisco, always in the corner office. with championship games in weekend, only bill belichick could step away from the buffet, but also has three super bowl rings. ceos with wide faces outperform those looking gaunt. a big mug is a more aggressive mug. and what is warren buffett's bmi

and. i didn't mention any female ceo very, very wise idea because that is an issue you absolutely cannot win. brian, i notice you're keeping quiet as well. >> taken heat for saying javy wife, happy life. >> happy wife, lots and lots of strife. >> according to the government, i'm grotesquically obese. i'll live. here's an idea. should apple buy spotify? what about pandora? we'll debate. the always irritable herb greenberg will join us. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you don't have to be a golf pro to walk like one. ♪ when you walk 10,000 steps a day, it's the same as walking a professional golf course. humana.

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hewlett-packard shares rising. dow jones report. it may sell youautonomy and eds >> let's speak with todd hazelton. currently back above 500. yesterday dropped below 500 and brian has a little beef about what's going on with the new itunes. he seems a little confused, and other people might be confused here as well. what do you think is going on as well? >> the way i look at itunes is the way i joke at people that use aol, you use that for music. i think i had gone spotify and like the subscription plans and

i'm getting laughed at over here. >> are you spotified, too? they are not mutually exclusive. >> i think itunes is great for videos, and they are different. here's my beef. when you plug in a phone or ipad, used to pop up on the left-hand side. brian's ipad, you sort of sync what you want. now it's lost in some menu somewhere that i can't find fin. >> every day with technology. >> sort of like icloud. you do it on your device so i return to the ipad mini and bought it again, and everything, including the websites that i had loaded on the last one that i returned came right back, and so itubes is great for that, too, because it brings all your music and you don't have to connect to your computer anymore. >> should apple buy spotify? >> would i love to see it happen because i feel like itunes is going down this cliff. just this old, even though they revamped the ui. spotify lets you share a play list with friends. >> i share mine on twitter. >> you can share with one

another. >> i must say. it's interesting because yesterday i was talking to one of my guys out in silicon valley who is a big apple guy. everything in this house for years and years, and he said we stopped using itunes. we have gone to spotify from his kids, to him, to his wife and the whole thing. >> not just for music, guys. i just bought a new phone, right? because i broke my iphone and got another one. i plug it in so i can sync up the apps because otherwise i rebuy them. >> use icloud for that. >> i do use icloud. sometimes i want to back up to my computer so there's times you have to sync. not talking about the music experience. remember, apple a few years ago bought lala. spent 18 hours uploading my music to it. promptly purchased it and shut it down. if they bought spotify. nobody is saying that they will. but if they did, what should shedo with it? >> keep it going. breathes fresh life into it with features they haven't had before even if there's rumors that apple will get into the subscription business.

>> is ri my now the anti-apple? >> as i tweeted, this is a buy on the rumor, sell on the news story because even if the bb-10 is so great, as everybody says they think it will be, it still gets back -- >> i think it's great. >> here's the question. would you switch? >> i'm ready to. i wrote an article technobuffalo.com saying i'm ready to get a blackberry again. >> i never left my blackberry because i love the user interface. so old school. >> i know it's weird. >> what is this, oprah? deep admissions hour, okay. i'm going to reveal my secret, the nokia lumina 500, greatest phone. i love it. >> that's my little secret. >> i love my blackberry. thank you, todd. thank you, herb. going for a quick break. do not go away.

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